‘Anti-dredging’ movement afoot?

Mayor Tony Santos mentioned something today at his monthly “Coffee with the Mayor” session that I’ve never heard before.

As he was fielding questions from residents at Mission Bay mobile-home park (a retirement community) about dredging at the San Leandro Marina, he said he feels people are now pretty much evenly split on whether the City Council should go forward with dredging the yacht harbor and two-mile federal channel, a process that now costs more than $5 million.

He also said he thinks an “anti-dredging” movement has begun to gain momentum, and that it is being led by Robert Leigh — a former Washington Manor Homeowners Association president who recently suggested in a letter to the editor that the boat harbor should be converted into a recreational lagoon so that the city could spend the money on other projects, such as fixing roads or completing the senior center.

(Note: This idea has been suggested before, and it is being looked at by the City Council Shoreline-Marina Committee as an alternative to dredging if the city decides to no longer pursue that process.)